And sometimes you can be inspired to write a piece with an entirely different philosophy. “Life Sustains Life” is a haibun written after reading Mary Oliver’s “The Fish.”
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
Life Sustains Life
The first fish I ever caught hung by a hook in my hand flailing as my brother took a picture, his little sister, tears coursing down her cheeks, murmuring, “We can’t kill it.” “But it will make fine eating.”
We didn’t eat the drowning bass but released it in a deeper portion of a stream near our cabin, where it probably fed a raccoon or a bear, a creature whose need and desire were greater.
Years later, in the instant when I understood life leaving the squirrel’s eyes, glazed, death seeping through, I understood my path; for every decision, even eating demands thoughtfulness. Not a mystery, not a continuation of death sustaining life, but life sustaining life, not asceticism, but grace, joy, a religion of its own.
The drowning bass twists
Its scales sparkle emerald jewels.
Summer memory past.
Sascha Darlington
Wow, this lays heavy on my heart. Eating demands thoughtfulness—I wish! Most are thoughtless in eating, otherwise not a single animal would land in our tummies.
Well, I think that’s too comprehensive. There are people who think and don’t care. There will *always* be people who *think* and don’t care.